6 YouTube Videos for Exploring Australia in Your Homeschool

My boys are fascinated by Australia! (Who isn't, right?) Because we follow a heavily interest-led approach to education, per their request, we have studied this small continent a few times during our years of homeschooling.

By the third time through, I felt we had exhausted our resources! We had already read all the books we could get our hands on including those in BookShark's Eastern Hemisphere Level F for ages 10-13, watched (and rewatched) all the movies and films about Australia I could think of, and even tried several authentic Australian foods and recipes.

I turned to YouTube to find new videos and was thrilled with how many there are to choose from. We often use movies in our homeschool when I am unable to teach or when life gets in the way of our regular lessons—Plan B Days. It’s a comfort to know that they are still learning while having fun.

Here are my six top picks for high quality and kid-friendly YouTube videos about The Land Down Under—Australia.

1. 101 Facts About Australia

This 27-minute video gives a quick look at 101 facts about Australia that most people do not know.  For example did you know these?

• Australia isn’t even the country's proper name.

• Uluru is the world’s largest rock.

• Over 200 different languages are spoken in Australia.

• Some Australian trees can actually explode.

Those are just a few of the intriguing facts explored in this video.

2. Land Beyond Time, Australia

This 42-minute video looks at many of the unusual animals, unique land features, and diverse climate traits of the continent. Through this video, I learned that Australia was one connected to Antarctica and started out with vast rainforests and that nearly half the continent is covered in sand dunes.  

3. Australia’s Great Barrier Reef

This hour long video brings the viewer up close with the Great Barrier Reef and many of its creatures. The video explains and shows:

• how coral grows and spreads

• the many types of coral that thrive in the Great Barrier Reef

• the relationships between the reef and the animals that rely on it for protection and food

4. Australia’s Greatest Islands

Over 20,000 islands are part of Australia, and this hour long documentary teaches about a few of those islands and their animal inhabitants.

• Lady Elliot Island—one of the only islands where red-tailed tropicbirds nest

• Kangaroo Island—where rare, critically endangered Australian sea lions can still be found, koalas breed in excess, and echidnas roam free from the danger of predators

• Lord Howe Island—a volcanic island with 50 plant species and 5 unique species of birds that can not be found anywhere else on earth

• Macquarie Island—a subantarctic island that is home to 4 different species of penguins

5. 10 Facts About Australian Animals

This short, 2-minute video is full of interesting facts about some of Australia’s unique animals:

• Male Platypus are venomous.

• Kangaroos can’t walk backwards.

• Koalas are not bears.

6. 10 Most Dangerous Animals in Australia

This quick, 7-minute video gives an overview of the 10 most lethal animals found in and around Australia:

• The box jellyfish has enough venom to stop a human heart.

• The honey bee is considered deadly since many Australians are allergic to this non-native species.

• The blue ringed octopus's bite uses a neurotoxin that makes it hard to breathe.

• The eastern brown snake is the second deadliest snake in the world.

Using videos to study history and geography allows us to integrate multiple subjects in a single project—writing, art, home economics, and science. For example, after watching these Australia videos over the course of a few days, I will have my boys design a travel brochure using the things that they have learned. They’ll each take a large sheet of paper, fold it into thirds, and write blurbs of information about Australia while drawing or printing out pictures to illustrate their paragraphs. These brochures are a great way to assess their understanding while helping them remember what they learned from the six YouTube videos.

If you like this post, you will probably also love these video lists for other continents:

• Explore Africa Through Streaming Video 
• 10 YouTube Videos for Exploring South America

• 10 YouTube Videos for Exploring Central America

About the Author

Joanne Rawson is the author of the blog Our Unschooling Journey. Known around the web as Mother of 3, Joanne began her blog when she first started homeschooling her three boys in 2012. She lives in Connecticut with her family and enjoys reading, crafting, and traveling... all of which usually ends up on her blog.